Accelerated Panning User Interface Interactions

ABSTRACT

A computer-implemented user interface method includes displaying on a touch screen a potion of a large scale graphical space that is at least multiples larger than the device display, receiving from a user of the device an input to pan within the graphical space, automatically generating a pop up graphical panning control in response to receiving the user input, and receiving a user input to the panning control and providing panning in the graphical space, wherein movement of the panning control in a single selection is able to pan the display across a substantial portion of the large scale graphical space.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application claims priority under 35 USC §119(e) to U.S. PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/056,823, filed on May 28, 2008, the entirecontents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This document relates to systems and techniques for generating graphicaldisplay elements and controls.

BACKGROUND

People spend hours at a time with their electronic devices—computers,telephones, music players, and the like. They like best those devicesthat are intuitive to use and whose interactions best meet theirexpectations regarding how machines should work. They interact withelectronics through inputs and outputs from the devices, where theoutputs generally are provided audibly and/or on a flat graphicaldisplay screen, and the inputs may occur via touch screens, joysticks,mice, 4-directional keypads, and other such input mechanisms.

As mobile devices become more powerful, users interact with them more byusing graphical objects, such as lists of items, maps, images, and thelike. The information represented by such objects may be enormous andvery large (e.g., a detailed map of the United States would be mileswide), while the displays on mobile devices are very small. As a result,it can be a challenge to provide graphical information in sufficientdetail for a user (e.g., by zooming in on one area of an object) whilestill giving the user a sense of space and permitting the user to moveintuitively throughout the space.

SUMMARY

This document describes systems and techniques that may be employed tointeract with a user of a computing device, like a mobile telephonehaving a touch screen user interface. In general, the techniques mayreact in particular ways to inputs for moving around a multi-dimensionalspace in two or more directions. In particular, when a user indicates anintent to pan in a space, such as by scrolling in a list or panning in amap or image, the techniques may determine whether the space is a largespace (e.g., several times larger than the device display) and maypresent a noticeable but unobtrusive graphical control element thatpermits accelerated panning in the space. The control element may be,for example, a scroll bar that is automatically generated along an edgeof the display whenever the user begins panning in a large space usingtouch screen inputs.

In certain implementations, such systems and technique may provide oneor more advantages. For example, a user of a device may be saved time innavigating around a large space (which could otherwise require draggingtheir finger repeatedly across the surface of a touch screen) becausethey can use the accelerated panning control to move across an entirespace with a single finger input. Also, the user may be provided with acontextual indication that shows them where they are currently locatedwithin the larger space. For example, the scrolling control may belocated along an edge of the display at a location that reflects theuser's current location within the space (i.e., the control can be nearthe top of the screen if the user is near the top of the space). In thismanner, the user's interactions with their device may be more efficientand enjoyable, and the user may use the particular applications on theirdevice more often and also be more likely to purchase the particulardevice.

In one implementation, a computer-implemented visual navigation methodis disclosed. The method comprises displaying on a touch screen a potionof a large scale graphical space that is at least multiples larger thanthe device display. The method also comprises receiving from a user ofthe device an input to pan within the graphical space, automaticallygenerating a pop up graphical panning control in response to receivingthe user input, and receiving a user input to the panning control andproviding panning in the graphical space, wherein movement of thepanning control in a single selection is able to pan the display acrossa substantial portion of the large scale graphical space. The pop upcontrol can comprise a slider button located along an edge of the touchscreen. Also, the method can further comprise increasing the graphicalpanning control in size if the user provides multiple panning inputswithout selecting the control.

In certain aspects, the graphical space comprises a list of items andthe graphical panning control causes accelerated scrolling through thelist. Also, the graphical space can comprise a map or image and thegraphical panning control can cause accelerated panning across the mapor image. The method can also include automatically removing thegraphical panning control a determined time after a user selects thegraphical panning control. In addition, the method can includedisplaying on the touch screen, during user selection of the panningcontrol, a miniature representation of the graphical space and anindicator of the user's current location within the graphical space.

In certain other aspects, the method further comprises displaying on thetouch screen, during user selection of the panning control, an indicatorof a segment, from within a group of discrete segments in the graphicalspace, that is currently being displayed on the touch screen. Also, thepop up graphical panning control can be generated in response to a longpress by the user on the touch screen, or in response to a quick flickinput on the touch screen. The control can also be sized relativelyproportionately to the size of the touch screen in comparison to thesize of the graphical space. In addition, the method can comprisereceiving a long press input from the user on the touch screen andgenerating a zoom control on the touch screen in response to the longpress input.

In another implementation, an article comprising a computer-readabledata storage medium storing program code is disclosed. The code isoperable to cause one or more machines to perform certain operations,where the operations comprising displaying on a touch screen a potion ofa large scale graphical space that is at least several multiples largerthan the device display, receiving from a user of the device an input topan within the graphical space, automatically generating a pop upgraphical panning control in response to receiving the user input, andreceiving a user input to the panning control and providing panning inthe graphical space, wherein movement of the panning control in a singleselection is able to panning the display across a substantial portion ofthe large scale graphical space.

In yet another implementation, a computer-implemented user interfacesystem is disclosed. The system comprises a graphical display to presentportions of large scale graphical areas, a touch screen user inputmechanism to receive user selections in coordination with the display ofthe portions of the lathe scale graphical areas, and means forgenerating an accelerated panning control in response to a user panningselection on portions of the large scale graphical areas. The system canalso include a mapping application, and wherein the pop up controlcomprises a panning control for controlling the mapping application.

The details of one or more embodiments are set forth in the accompanyingdrawings and the description below. Other features and advantages willbe apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A and 1B are conceptual diagrams showing navigation mechanismsfor large display spaces.

FIG. 2A show sequential displays that may be generating for a usernavigating a long list on a mobile device having a touch screen.

FIG. 2B shows displays that may be generated for a user by a mobiledevice according to the motion or position of the mobile device.

FIG. 2C shows example displays of techniques for providing a userinterface for panning and zooming in a large space.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a system that provides user interactionin response to touch screen inputs.

FIGS. 4A-4B are flow charts of example processes for receiving userselections from a graphical user interface.

FIGS. 4C-4D are a flow charts of an example process for updating adisplay according to the motion of a mobile device.

FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of an exemplary mobile device thatimplements embodiments of the notification techniques described herein.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating the internal architecture of thedevice of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components of theoperating system used by the device of FIG. 5.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary processes implementedby the operating system kernel of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a computer device and a mobile computerdevice that can be used to implement the techniques described here.

Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This document describes systems and techniques by which mobile devicesmay interact with a user of such devices. For example, a user may beshown graphical objects, such as in the form of icons, that indicate tothe user where they are located within a large virtual space, and mayprovide controls that a user may select in order to move visually withinthat space. For example, when the space is a long list of items such astitles of sings in a playlist on a digital media player, a proportionalscroll bar may appear on the edge of a screen when a user starts toscroll. If the user scrolls a sufficient amount or at a sufficientspeed, a large letter may appear on the screen to indicate the letter inthe alphabet at which they are currently located in their scrolling ofthe list. Thus, while the list may be blurred, the user may have anindication of where they are in any event. The location of the lettervertically on the display may be comparable to its position within thealphabet, so that the letter “A” will appear at the top of the display,and the letter “Z” will appear at the bottom. The scroll bar can alsochange appearance as a user scrolls, getting large or otherwise moreprominent as a user scrolls more.

In another example, where it is desirable to show a large portion of thevisual space but a user cannot fully see the items in the visual spaceat a zoom level that permits seeing a large portion of the space, aobject in the form of a virtual magnifying glass may be provided. Suchan object may be an area on the screen within which a portion of thespace is substantially enlarged. Such an object may be used, forexample, during web browsing, so that a user can see an overall layoutof a web page, and can then quickly read or otherwise more closelyreview, a portion of the page.

In yet another example, the visual space may be a 360-degree panorama ata point in the real world, like that provided by the well-known GOOGLESTREETVIEW service. Such a panorama may be generated by taking digitalimages simultaneously or nearly simultaneously by a plurality of camerasmounted near a common point and aimed radially outward. Such images maynormally be navigated on a desktop personal computer, such as via theGOOGLE MAPS service. In the example here, the images may be navigatedinherently by using position-detecting components on a mobile deviceitself, such as a compass in a compass module provided on the device.Thus, a user can select a geographic location, which may be theircurrent location or a different location, and may then see on theirdevice a view from that location is aligned with the direction that theyare currently facing (e.g., as determined by a compass in their mobiledevice). As they turn, the images on their mobile device will change tomatch the view, from the selected location, in the direction that theyare currently facing if they are holding their device in front ofthemselves.

FIGS. 1A and 1B are conceptual diagrams showing navigation mechanismsfor large display spaces. FIG. 1A generally shows navigation in a longlist of items, while FIG. 1B shows navigation across a large map. Ineach figure, the area to be displayed (which is shown in dashed lines)is substantially larger than the area that is capable of being displayedat one time (which is shown in solid lines). Thus, mechanisms arediscussed here that assist a user in navigating across the spaces inways that are more convenient than repeatedly panning acrossdisplay-after-display-after-display until the user finally gets to theirdesired area.

Referring now to the example in FIG. 1A, there is shown a graphicalsystem 102 that comprises a list 108 of items stored on a mobile device.The items may include things such as personal contacts associated with auser, songs or records in a user's music collection, various filesstored on a device, video files that may be played conveniently on thedevice, or other appropriate groups of items that are displayable in alist format. An individual item 110 may be displayed to the user with avariety of information indicative of the item. For example, where theitem is a contact, the displayed information may include a name of thecontact and a telephone number for the contact. Where the item 110 is amusical group, the system may display an image of the musical group oran album cover for the musical group, a name of the group, and the nameof a song, albums, or other appropriate information regarding the group.Where the item 110 is a file in a list of files, the system may displaythe file name, a size of the file, and a last-saved date for the file.

A display 106 is shown superimposed near the middle of the list 108. Thedisplay 106 in this example represents a typical portrait-formattedvideo display from a mobile device, and may be approximately 3 to 4inches measured diagonally. The display 106 is shown as a window, ineffect, over the list 108, to represent that a user may scroll throughthe list to see various different portions of the list 108 at one timeby way of the display 106.

Conceptually then, the list 108 moves up and down beneath the display106, and the display 106 serves as a window onto the list. In animplementation, the manner in which the list 108 is sorted and themanner in which the display 106 fetches and formats items from the list108 for presentation to a user may occur according to standardmechanisms. The top and bottom of the display 106 are shown as beingshaded to indicate that items in the list 108 may fade to black near thetop and bottom of the display 106 so as to provide a user with theimpression that the items are effectively on a-dimensional reel that theuser is spinning as they navigate up and down the list.

The display 106 may be integrated as part of a touch screen structure,so that a user may drag the list 108 up and down by sliding their fingerup or down, respectively, on top of the list, in an intuitive manner.However, where the list 108 is very long, sliding a finger on display106 or flicking on display 106 to provide momentum in panning up anddown the list 108, may be a slow method for providing such panningbecause the user will have to repeat their motion many times. As aresult, a visual control 112 is displayed on display 106 to assist insuch panning across the long list 108. The control 112 may take the formof a slider button that will be familiar to users from variousapplications that involve the use of scrolling bars, such as desktopproductivity software (e.g., spreadsheets and word processors). Thecontrol 112 may be displayed in a scrolling bar to the side of the list108, or as an element that visually floats over the elements in the list108.

The control 112 may take a proportional form, as is well-known in theart, in that the control 112 may be shorter if list 108 is longer. Insuch a situation then, the control 112 may take the user to the top orbottom of the list 108 by the user dragging the control 112 to the topor bottom of its predetermined positions within display 106. Inparticular, a shorter control 112 may represent the relative smallerarea being displayed by display 106 where list 108 is a very long list.As a result, each movement of control 112 through a span equal to theheight of control 112 may approximate the movement across one display106 of list 108. In other words, equal movement by a user of control 112may result in much more corresponding movement of items across display106 when control 112 is small, than when control 112 is larger and list108 is thus shorter.

The control 112 may take a variety of other forms also. For example, thecontrol 112 may be placed elsewhere on the area of display 106 such asbeing overlaid over the middle of display 106. In certainimplementations, however, it may be preferred to locate control 112 asfar out of the way of the display 106 as possible, so as to avoidobscuring the content of display 106 by a user's finger or otherpointer.

The movement of a control 112 in a particular direction may drive themovement of list 108 across display 106 in the same or an oppositedirection, depending on the implementation. For example, the dragging ofcontrol 112 downward may visually drag list 108 downward, and thus makeit appear that display 106 is climbing the list, and that control 112 isattached directly to the list 108, though perhaps in a form ofaccelerating linkage. Alternatively, movement of control 112 down maycause list 108 to move upwards through display 106, leaving animpression that control 112 is connected to display 106, perhaps by wayof an accelerating linkage.

FIG. 1B shows a number of example displays 114, 116, 118 that providewindows into a map of a metropolitan area, here the Minneapolis-St. Paulmetropolitan area. The map 104 in this example is highly simplified soas to permit a clearer view of the components in the various displays114, 116, 118. In each instance, the displays 114, 116, 118, may showonly a small portion of the map at one time, so that mechanisms areprovided to permit easy and intuitive panning across the map 104 for auser of a device, such as a mobile device having a touch screen.

A first display 114 represents a user of a mobile device viewing a zonein the Southwest metropolitan area. Display 114 shows the generation ofa four-headed arrow 114 a over the surface of the map in display 114. Auser may drag the arrow 114 a up, or down, or sideways, to indicate anintent to pan around the map 104. In one example, panning by a userbefore the arrow 114 a is displayed (e.g., dragging a finger across themap) may cause display 114 to move only several miles in one directionacross the metropolitan area. In contrast, after the four-headed arrow114 a is displayed, the user may drag the arrow 114 a into the upperright-hand corner of the display to thereby cause display 114 to move tothe upper right corner of the map 104, in the Northeast zone on themetropolitan area. Other such exaggerated or accelerated motions mayalso occur via manipulation of the arrow 114 a.

The display 114 also includes a small overview map 114 b of the entiremap area. Map 114 b is provided in a familiar manner, and shows a largebox that represents the entire mapped area available to a user in acurrent zoom level and a smaller box that represents the current display114 of the user, so that the user may readily identify their locationrelative to other locations in the larger map. Major features from themap 104 may also be displayed inside map 114 b, though all featureslikely will not be displayed because map 114 b is much smaller than map104.

Display 116 shows slider controls 116 a, 116 b, that operate in a mannersimilar to slider control 112 in FIG. 1A. In particular, a userpresented with display 116 may initially be shown only the mapinformation filling up their entire display 116. If they begin to pan intheir display 116, across map 104, or flick to pan so as to indicatethat they want to pan a long distance, controls 116 a, 116 b may begenerated and shown to the user. The user may then pan all the way tothe left or right of map 104 by sliding control 116 a all the way to theleft or right of display 116. In a similar manner, display 116 may bemoved all the way to the top or bottom of map 104 by sliding control 116b all the way to the top or bottom of display 116. In this manner, theuser may quickly move about map 104 using the controls 116 a, 116 b toaccelerate their motion across the map 104, so that a single swipe ondisplay 116 may move the display 116 much farther then would a normalpanning motion directly on the map in display 116, and not using thecontrols 116 a, 116 b.

Display 118 provides for navigation similar to that shown in display114, but with an annular ring displayed over the map 104. The locationof the ring 118 a on display 118 indicates the relative position of thedisplay 118 on map 104. In particular, here, the display 118 is near thetop of map 104 and slightly to the left, and likewise, the ring 118 a isnear the top and slightly to the left on display 118. The user may thendrag their finger in the area of display 118, but not on ring 118 a, topan slowly across the map, or may place their finger on ring 118 a topan quickly across the map 104.

Thus, the mechanisms of FIGS. 1A and 1B show various mechanisms forallowing a user to navigate within a large virtual space, whether thespace is along a single dimension or in two dimensions. These mechanismsmay provide the user a sense of their current location within the largespace, as well as a selectable control or controls to let the usercontrol their computing device so as to pan around the space. Themechanisms shown here may be particular useful for touch screen devices,and more particularly mobile devices having touch screens.

Referring now again to a display of a long list of items, FIG. 2A showssequential displays 200-206 that may be generated for a user who isnavigating a long list on a mobile device having a touch screen. In thisexample, the list is a list of music groups or singers, that could beshown conceptually like the list 108 in FIG. 1A.

Display 200 shows seven different groups, with the group name, thenumber of albums stored on the user's device for that group, and thetotal number of songs on those albums. In addition, a graphical icon isshown for each group, where the icon indicates whether a single album ormultiple albums are available for that group. Where available, albumcover art may be downloaded manually or automatically, or other imagesmay be inserted for the icons.

A slider control 208 is shown along the right-hand edge of display 200in this example. The slider control 208 may be shown whenever thedisplay 200 is showing a list that is larger than the display 200, ormay be shown only in particular contextual circumstances (e.g., onlyafter particular actions by a user that indicate an intent by the userto pan a long way across a representation of data), as described morefully above and below.

Display 202 shows the action of a user flick across the screen upwardfrom a pictured small dot to a pictured larger dot and ring. Theparticular graphic shown here would typically not be shown on display202, but instead is provided here to show a typical user input on thedisplay 202. The flick 210 may result in the generation of slidercontrol 212 on the display 202, in situations where the slider controlwas not previously displayed. In this example, the user is at the top ofthe alphabet in the list, so the slider control 212 is shown at the topof display 202. The size of the slider control 212 may be generallyproportional, or inversely proportional, to the length of the list shownon display 202. For example, here, slider control 212 is about 1/10 theheight of display 202. As a result, one may conclude that the listincludes approximately 60 artists. The size of control 212 may also berelated to the length of the list, but not necessarily proportionatelysized against display 202. For example, a minimum size for slidercontrol 212 may be specified, so that even if the list includesthousands of entries, the slider control 212 will be large enough for auser to see it adequately and select it without frequent errors.

Display 204 results from the flick 210. In particular, the list ofartists has scrolled upward and has rested two letters further down thealphabet. Notice that the movement involves momentum, because the flick210 spanned only the distance of two artists, but the display hasscrolled down through several dozen artists. The particular speed of theflick may determine the distance that is scrolled so as to approximatethe action of a physical spinning wheel or similar physical object thata user might flick, in what is a familiar manner to a skilled artisan.

Additionally, the control 212 has changed in two relevant manners, tobecome control 214. First, because control 214 is a scrolling control,its position has moved down slightly from its position as control 212,to reflect that the user is further down the list in display 204 incomparison to display 202. In addition, the control 214 is moreprominent than control 212, to bring it to the user's attention morereadily. For example, the control 214 has begun to thicken and bulgeslightly at its center to signify to the user that it may be selectedfor particular contextual functions.

In this example, the control 214 may be used to conduct acceleratedpanning up and down the list of artists. For example, the control may bedragged all the way down the side of display 204, and although suchmotion will span only five artists as they are currently shown on thedisplay, it can result in motion of the list all the way down to theletter Z, perhaps across hundreds of artists.

The control 214 may be made more prominent in other ways also. Forexample, the control 214 may be made brighter as an alternative to, orin addition to, increasing the size of control 214. The control 214 mayalso be rendered so as to appear to stretch and to look under pressureas the user conducts repeated flicks like flick 210. In this manner, theuser may see more urgency in employing control 214 to conductaccelerated panning, since multiple flicks on the list itself shouldindicate that the user truly would benefit from accelerated panningrather than having to perform so many manual flicks. In addition, thecolor of the control 214 may change, both as a user performs one or moreflicks across the surface of a list, and also as the control 214 movesup and down the edge of a display, so as to bring the control 214 moreto the user's attention as they provide inputs that indicate that theymay have a need for the control 214.

Display 206 represents a change resulting from a user selection ofcontrol 214 as shown by the dot at the bottom of control 214 in thearrow leading to display 206. The dot on control 216 indicates that auser has maintained pressure on the control 216 and is about to scrolldown through the list on display 206. Such a selection may cause thecontrol to change shape again from that shown by control 214 to thatshown by control 216. In addition, an index letter for the items in thelist is shown in a familiar manner to provide additional guidance for auser. The index letter 218 represents a discrete grouping of theelements in the list, here a letter of the alphabet to represent thestarting letter of the artist that is shown at the top of display 206.The index letter 218 may take other forms also, such as a numeralrepresenting a size of a file stored on a device, or any other indicatorby which a list of items may be classified into discrete groups.

The index letter 218 may be displayed in a variety of manners. In thisexample, the index letter 218 is located near the edge of the display soas to minimize the manner in which it may cover the artist names, butmay also be made partially or wholly transparent to permit viewing ofthe names even when they are positioned under the index letter 218. Inaddition, the index letter 218 may move up and down on the display 206along with the movement of control 216. For example, the index letter218 may be anchored just to the left of control 216 a sufficientdistance so that the index letter 218 may be seen by a user even whiletheir finger is on control 216. However, the index letter 218 may moveup and down the side of display 206 along with the control 216. In sucha manner, the user may more readily focus on the letter being displayedand be able to navigate more closely to the artist in which they areinterested, because they may watch and move their eyes along with thefingers that they are moving.

The index letter may change as the letters in the list in display 206change, so that, for example, if there were many artists in the listthat started with the letter A, but few that started with the letter C,very little motion of control 216 would be required to pass through theletter C as an index letter 218, as compared to passing through theletter A. Alternatively, each index letter, here A to Z (and perhaps 0to 9), may have an equal division in comparison to the movement ofcontrol 216, so that movement down one 26th of display 206 will alwaysresult in the changing of one letter in index letter 218, for example.

In some implementations, the index letter may change as the user slidesthe control 214 up and down, but the items in the list may stop movingwhen such control is occurring. Thus, there may be two modes ofcontrol—normal panning where the items in the list scroll up and down asthe user pans, and accelerated panning, where the items no longer move,and an index letter is cycled through in an accelerated manner as theuser moves the control.

Using the techniques described herein, a user may readily navigate insmall movements by dragging their finger across a display of a list. Theuser may navigate in larger movements by flicking across the displaywith their finger so as to give it virtual momentum and thereby movemore than one display at a time in the list. The user may also beprovided a convenient option for scrolling in an accelerated mannerthrough the list, without having to take up unnecessary interaction—viathe presentation of a control that is hidden until the user indicates anintent to pan or scroll through the list.

FIG. 2B shows displays that may be generated for a user by a mobiledevice according to the motion or position of the mobile device. Ingeneral, any number of mobile devices can be configured to detectvarious kinds of motion. For example, in some implementations, themobile device may include an electronic compass that can be used todetect a change in heading, according to the Earth's magnetic field(e.g., the North and South Poles). As such, when a user holding themobile device turns or otherwise changes the heading of the mobiledevice in relation to the direction of the North Pole, the mobile devicecan detect the change in heading. As another example, the mobile devicemay include an accelerometer that can detect a change in motion. Assuch, when a user holding the mobile device lifts, drops, shakes, orotherwise accelerates or decelerates the mobile device, the mobiledevice can detect the change in acceleration. In some implementations,these detected motions can be used to update the display on the mobiledevice automatically.

Referring now to the examples shown in FIG. 2B, a mobile device 220 isshown being held by a user 224 a-224 c, in different orientations ordirections. The user 224 a-224 c is shown with particular headings(according to the “North” arrow). That is, the same user is shown withdifferent headings according to a compass included in the mobile device220. In general, the mobile device 220 may include a web browser orother software application(s) that allows the user of the mobile deviceto access a map of a particular area. In some implementations, the mapalso includes images of the area that are captured from a street-sidevantage point. One such example is STREETVIEW from GOOGLE (MountainView, Calif.). The user 224 a-224 c can provide an address to the webbrowser or other software application(s) to generate a view (in the formof a map, satellite image, or combination of the two) of the areasurrounding the provided address. In some implementations, the mobiledevice 220 may automatically provide the address (as the current addresswhere the user is located) using a global position system (GPS) or othersystems designed to locate the mobile device automatically.

The user may initially provide address information—here the address ofthe Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome—and may be provided with map tiles andother map data in a familiar manner for the area around “The Dome.” Theuser may then further select to be presented with a street view in anarea around The Dome. While the user may be located, for example, intheir home, they may be displayed images from the outside of The Domethat were taken by a car that passed the dome at an earlier time. Theuser may obtain the view alternatively, via a search, such as by thequery “MetroDome,” which may return an address as a Onebox result thatincludes a link to the map of the area around the structure, and theymay then choose to see images from a point on the map.

The direction in which the person is looking in a virtual manner viaSTREETVIEW may be coordinated with the compass direction the person isfacing in their own frame of reference. For example, as the user 224a-224 c moves, the mobile device 220 generates displays 222 a-222 c of aparticular region according to the map data, the location of the mobiledevice, the heading of the mobile device, and/or other information thatcan be detected by the mobile device (e.g., acceleration exerted on themobile device 220). For example, user 224 b is looking generally SSE,and is thus shown the view in the area near the Dome that is oriented ina similar direction.

If the user turns to their left (e.g., in a heading illustrated as user224 a), the mobile device 220 can detect the motion or direction of theuser (e.g., the change in heading) and automatically pan the view tomatch heading of the user, which is illustrated as display 222 a. Thatis, the mobile device 220 now displays (in display 222 a) a differentportion of the Metrodome according to new heading detected by the mobiledevice 220. If the user turns to their right (e.g., in a headingillustrated by user 224 c), the mobile device 220 can detect the motionof the user (e.g., the change in heading) and automatically pan the viewto match the current heading of the user, which is illustrated asdisplay 222 c.

The heading of the device may be matched easily to relevant heading datathat identifies portions of the image or images that make up theparticular street view. Where there are multiple images, they can bemade to appear seamless to a user by serving them in succession andblending them at their edges. In this manner, the user can be providedwith the effect of viewing on their mobile device the area around thepoint at which the images were captured, even though the user may be faraway from such a location.

In some implementations, an accelerometer can be used instead of, or inaddition to, a compass on the mobile device 220. For example, as theuser walks, the accelerometer can detect the motion (e.g., shaking,walking, change in elevation, orientation, or other motion) and updatethe displays 222 a-222 c accordingly. For example, the mobile device candetect that user is moving based on detected accelerations and can panthe displays 222 a-222 c as if the user were walking down the street.The user may also simply shake the device in space to cause forwardmotion to occur in the displayed space, much like selection of a travelarrow in GOOGLE STREETVIEW causes the user to move virtually down astreet. As another example, the mobile device 220 can detect a change inthe orientation of the mobile device (e.g., according to accelerationdetected by the accelerometer) and can pan the displays 222 a-222 c upor down as if the user 224 a-224 c were looking up or down, where thegraphical images provided by a remote server to the device include suchpanoramic photographs.

The direction shown by the device may also be relative rather thanabsolute, and particularly where an accelerometer is used and a compassis not. In particular, the initial orientation of a view that isprovided to a user may initially be selected by a rule rather than aparticular direction that the user is facing. Then, relative motion bythe user rotating to the left or right may be sensed by an accelerometeron a device, and the images of the geographic locality that the vieweris reviewing may be panned relative to such motion, though perhaps notin a manner perfectly proportional to the user's motion. For example,the user may rotate 90 degrees, while the display may be made to rotateonly 60 degrees in the same direction because of limitations in theability of the user's device to sense absolute motion.

FIG. 2C shows example displays of techniques for providing a userinterface for panning and zooming in a large space. In general, thefigure includes four screen shots (a)-(d) that show different points intime in the use of a user interface mechanism for zooming on web pages.A web page may be raised initially in a relatively zoomed out level, asshown around the edges of display (a). By zooming out on the page, theuser may more readily browse the page to find relevant content incontext. To indicate a desire to zoom in, the user may double tap on thepage, via a touch screen input mechanism. The double tap may result inthe generation of a magnifying zoom box, which is shown in screen shot(a) in the process of appearing in a large format so that it is broughtreadily to the user's attention, and it then shrinks to a size thatrepresents the area that will be shown if the user chooses to zoom in.

At shot (b), the user is shown moving their finger toward the zoom box,and the user may press on the box and drag it around until it lies overthe area the user would like to review more closely. To provide acontrast between the content inside the zoom box and the contentoutside, the content inside may be increased in size slightly as the boxis moved around, as shown in shots (b)-(d). The zoom box may also trailthe user's finger slightly when the motion starts (see trailing box inshot (d), where the user's finger is moving toward the lower leftcorner). The box may then “catch up” in a springy fashion once thefinger stops moving. This may provide the user with a better sense thatthey are dragging the box, and may also keep the finger from fullycovering the zoom box while it is being moved around.

When the user has moved the zoom box over the content they would like tosee more closely, they may lift their finger, thus leaving the zoom boxin the location where they lifted. Such an action may also cause adisplay manager to automatically zoom in on the area in the zoom boxuntil the area inside the zoom box fills the entire display. a user maythen pan on the page by dragging their finger on the touch screen or byrolling a trackball, and may choose to zoom back out by again doubletapping on the screen.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a system 300 that provides userinteraction in response to touch screen inputs. The system 300 may beimplemented using a mobile device such as device 302. The device 302includes various input and output mechanisms such as a touch screendisplay 304 and a roller ball 306. A number of components within device302 may be configured to provide various selection functionality ondisplay 304, such as movement within large spaces which exceed the sizeof the display 304, as described above.

One such component is a display manager 312, which may be responsiblefor rendering content for presentation on display 304. The displaymanager 312 may receive graphic-related content from a number of sourcesand may determine how the content is to be provided to a user. Forexample, a number of different windows for various applications 310 onthe device 304 may need to be displayed, and the display manager 312 maydetermine which to display, which to hide, and what to display or hidewhen there is overlap between various graphical objects.

The display manager 312 can include various components to provide thedevice 302 with particular functionality for interacting with displayedcomponents, which may be shared across multiple applications, and may besupplied, for example, by an operating system of device 302. Suchfunctionality may be provided, for example, by interface navigationmodule 311, which may be responsible for receiving input from a userwanting to move between and among elements on display 304. In thisexample, a control 305 is shown on display 304, and may be similar tocontrol 118 a on display 118 in FIG. 1B. In particular, the positioningof control 305 on display 304 may represent to the user that they arelooking at a portion of their map that is in the Southeast corner of theentire map.

If the user drags on the map, interface navigation module 311 mayinitially cause control 305 to be displayed, and may cause the map topan an amount related to the dragging motion. Subsequent dragging on themap, but away from the control 305 may cause more panning of the map,and the control 305 may, in certain circumstances, move a small amountif the location of the control 305 on the map corresponds to thelocation of the map sub-section shown on the display 304 relative to theoverall map. Interface navigation module 311 can likewise provide forother changes in the display 304 in response to user input, such asthose described above and below.

Individual applications 310 can register themselves with the displaymanager 312 in accordance with an API so as to indicate the sort ofdisplay elements they might require. For example, an application mayidentify a group of data elements as corresponding to a list, and theinterface navigation module 311 may then treat such elements as a listvisually, e.g., it may show an accelerated scrolling control when thelist is sufficiently long and a user input indicates a user intent toscroll up or down within the list.

An input manager 314 may be responsible for translating commandsprovided by a user of device 302. For example, such commands may comefrom a keyboard, from touch screen display 304, from trackball 306, orfrom other such sources, including dedicated buttons or soft buttons(e.g., buttons whose functions may change over time, and whose functionsmay be displayed on areas of display 304 that are adjacent to theparticular buttons). The input may also occur more inferentially, suchas from signals provided by an on board compass or accelerometer. Theinput manager 314 may determine, for example, in what area of thedisplay commands are being received, and thus in what application beingshown on the display the commands are intended for. In addition, it mayinterpret input motions on the touch screen 304 into a common format andpass those interpreted motions (e.g., short press, long press, flicks,and straight-line drags) to the appropriate application. The inputmanager 314 may also report such inputs to an event manager (not shown)that in turn reports them to the appropriate modules or applications.

A variety of applications 310 may operate, generally on a commonmicroprocessor, on the device 302. The applications 310 may take avariety of forms, such as mapping applications, e-mail and othermessaging applications, web browser applications, music and videoplayers, and various applications running within a web browser orrunning extensions of a web browser.

One application that may run independently or as part of a browser isGOOGLE MAPS and GOOGLE STREETVIEW. Such an application may acceptreadings from a compass module 313 on the device 302, which may includean electronic compass and related circuitry and software forinterpreting compass readings, and an accelerometer 315. The compassmodule 313 and accelerometer may be used, such as described above withrespect to FIG. 2B to sense user motion or orientation, in changing thedevice's views of a geographic area that has previously beenphotographed panoramically, and whose digital images are available froma server to the device 302.

A wireless interface 308 manages communication with a wireless network,which may be a data network that also carries voice communications. Thewireless interface may operate in a familiar manner, such as accordingto the examples discussed below, and may provide for communication bythe device 302 with messaging services such as text messaging, e-mail,and telephone voice mail messaging. In addition, the wireless interface308 may support downloads and uploads of content and computer code overa wireless network. One example of data that may be obtained via thewireless network is images provided by an application such as GOOGLESTREETVIEW, where an application running on the device 302 (such as anJavaScript application running on a web page displayed on the device302) may have access to compass data on the device, and may request newimage data around a certain geographical point automatically in responseto a user's movement of the device 302.

Various forms of persistent storage may be provided, such as using fixeddisk drives and/or solid state memory devices. Two examples are shownhere. First, maps/lists/etc storage 316 includes all sorts of data to beused by applications 310, and can include lists of data elements,graphical components like map tiles, and a variety of other well knowndata structures so that a user can interact with applications on device302.

Other storage includes user defaults 318, which may be profileinformation for a user stored on the same media as maps/links/etc.storage 316. The user defaults 318 include various parameters about auser of the device 302. In the example relevant here, the user profilemay include data defining the manner in which the user prefers to havepanning controls presented on the display 304 (e.g., what the controlsshould look like, whether a list should scroll with the control or inthe opposite direction of the control, the actions by the user that willbring up the control, etc.).

Using the pictured components, and others that are omitted here forclarity, the device 302 may provide particular actions in response touser inputs. Specifically, the device 302 may respond to panning inputswithin large areas in particular ways, including by displaying a controlthat permits accelerated panning in the areas (i.e., panning that issubstantially faster than dragging across a panned object, and typicallypermits navigation from one side of the area to another using a singleswipe on the controls).

FIGS. 4A-4B are flow charts of example processes for receiving userselections from a graphical user interface. FIG. 4A shows, for example,a process by which a mobile device may respond to inputs on a screenthat shows only a relatively small part of a large graphical area.

The process begins in this example at box 400, where a request todisplay large area data is received. Large area data may include variousforms of data whose display extends well beyond the edges of a singlescreen on a device. Such data may include, for example, long lists ofinformation, and large images, or maps, or similar presentations ofinformation. The request to display the large area information may takea number of forms, such as a search request provided to a device, wherethe search results include the large area information, such as in theform of a list of files on a computer, on the Internet, or a mapgenerated in response to a search result.

At box 402, the process selects a subset of the large area data anddisplays that subset. For example, where the large area data is a map,the displayed subset may be a portion of that map surrounding an addressthat is a result for a search query that was entered by a user. Theprocess then receives a panning input from a user at box 404. Such aninput may generally be received by a user moving their finger or astylus across the surface of a touch screen display.

The process reacts to the user input at box 406, by showing a panningcontrol on the display after determining the relative size of thedisplay in comparison to the size of the entire area of data. The priordetermination of the relative size of the display before displaying thecontrol may ensure that a control is not shown if the area of data isthe size of the display or only slightly larger than the display. Insuch situations, panning either does not operate or can be completedeasily right on the data, without the need for a special control thatcan be used to provide accelerated panning.

The display of the control may also be dependent on the speed and mannerof the user input. For example, if the user drags slowly across thedisplay, the process may assume that the user is not interested innavigating to far flung corners of the data, and may decline to displaythe control. Similarly, if the user leaves their finger on the displayat the end of their action, such input may be taken as an indicationthat the user is not interested in panning very far, and thus not inneed of an accelerated panning control. In contrast, if the user movesquickly and lifts their finger at the end so as to create a “fling”input, such an input may be taken as a sign that the user intends to pana long way, so that the control may be generated in such a situation.

At box 408, the process reacts to the user input, such as a “fling”panning input, or by the input of subsequent panning inputs, byincreasing the prominence of the input control. Such an action mayinvolve increasing the size or brightness of the control, or, forexample, pulsing the control. The prominence of the control may beincreased only once, such as when a second panning input is received, ormay proceed through multiple increasing phases up to a maximum point.The intent of increasing the prominence of the control is to bring tothe user's attention the option of using an accelerated panning control,where the more the user tries to pan on the subject matter itself, themore the user is likely to pan, and the more they need help from thecontrol.

At box 410, the user notices the control and selects it so as to provideaccelerated panning of their display. the process responds by quickpanning the data in accordance with the user's manipulation of thecontrol. For example, if the user slides the control downward, thedisplay may move downward across a map or list of items at anexaggerated rate as the user watches. After a time of inaction—either ofthe user not selecting the control and/or the user not making a panningmotion on the display that would normally bring up the control—thecontrol may disappear, as shown at box 412. The control may, forexample, be faded out so that the user may see any data that may havebeen located beneath the control.

If the user later repeats a flicking action, the control may be broughtback and the steps repeated. However, the control will generally belocated in a position that reflects the user's current view of the dataarea. For example, if the user is currently looking at the middle of alist of videos stored on her device, the control may be generated on theside of the display, midway between the top and bottom of the display.

FIG. 4B shows a process for generating an accelerated panning controlwith respect to a list of graphically represented items, such as namesof contacts, musical artists, or other similar groups of distinct dataelements. In general, the process is similar to the process shown inFIG. 4A, but involves more particular responses to user inputs.

The process starts at box 420, where the process receives from a user aflick input (i.e., a fast movement followed by lifting of the finger orstylus) on a long list. The process may then check the length of thelist (boxes 422, 424) and if the list is not long (i.e., is not longerthan the device display or is not substantially longer than the devicedisplay, such as many times as long as the display), the process maycontinue receiving input form the user (box 426).

If the list is long, a thin panning control may be displayed on adisplay of the device (box 428), such as in the form of a scrollinghandle along one edge of the display (generally the right edge, to avoidcovering left-justified text in the list). In addition, the list may bescrolled in response to the flick, and the speed and distance of thescrolling may represent the movement of a physical object, so that thelist continues to scroll after the flick, and slows gradually, as if itwere being dragged down by friction. Also, the control will move alongthe side of the display so that it reflects, by its location between thetop and bottom of the display, the user's location (i.e., the display'slocation) between the top and bottom of the list.

At box 430, the process receives a second flick input from the user, andthe list may scroll again, as it did after the first flick input. Inaddition, the fact that the user has flicked twice indicates that he orshe may want to go very far down or up the list. As a result, theprocess, at box 432, thickens the display of the control so that thecontrol will be more visually prominent to the user. The system alsochecks, at box 434, whether the user has selected the control (though itwould generally be checking for such input anytime after the control isinitially displayed), and the control fades away if the user does notselect it or perform a flick of the subject matter for a determinedperiod (box 436). If the user does select the control, the processthickens the control further so as to make it even easier for the userto manipulate, and then pans the display according to the user'smanipulation of the control, such as in the various manners discussedabove.

FIGS. 4C-4D are flow charts of an example process for updating a displayaccording to the motion of a mobile device. FIG. 4C shows, for example,a process by which a mobile device may respond to sensed motion of themobile device. FIG. 4D show, for example, a process that shows exampleactions that can b performed by additional systems, outside the mobiledevice, that may be used to sense motion and update the display of themobile device to reflect the detected motion. In general, the processillustrated in FIG. 4C is described in reference to a mobile device ormap application and the process illustrated in FIG. 4C is described inreference to a mobile device, a maps server, or a StreetView server,according to which system is responsible for particular steps of theprocess.

In reference to FIG. 4C, the process starts at box 440, when a mapapplication is launched. In some implementations, the map applicationmay be launched automatically when the mobile device is booted. Forexample, the map application may be bootstrapped to the mobile device'sinitialization routines. In some implementations, the map applicationmay be launched by a user. For example, the user can select anapplication icon on the display of the mobile device to launch the mapapplication. In some implementations, another process or application maylaunch the map application. For example, a social networking applicationmay launch the map application when the social networking applicationpresents locations of particular friends to the user.

Once the map application is launched, in box 442, an address is receivedby the map application. This can be accomplished in any number of ways.For example, the user can input the address manually. As anotherexample, a GPS device located on the mobile device may automaticallyprovide an address.

In box 444, the map application can fetch and display map tiles aroundthe received address. For example, the map application can display oneor more tiles that show buildings, parks, streets, or other locations onthe mobile device.

In box 446, the map application can fetch and display StreetView images.In general a StreetView image is an image taken from the vantage pointof a person, vehicle, and the like at street level. As such, in someimplementations, the user of the map application may need to specify thestreet for which the map application fetches and displays the StreetViewimages. A first image may be displayed that represents the digital imagetaken by the camera at the relevant point, facing at a radial angle thecorresponds to the present direction that the mobile device is facing.

In box 448, the map application can sense motion of the mobile device.In general, the sensing of motion is accomplished by communicating withone or more systems or modules included on the mobile device that arecapable of detecting motion. For example, the map application cancommunicate with an accelerometer, a compass, or other modules to sensemotion of the mobile device.

In box 450, the map application pans the StreetView images to match theorientation of the user (i.e., the orientation of the mobile device).For example, in reference to FIG. 2B, StreetView images are presented onthe displays 222 a-222 c of mobile device 200 according to theorientation of user 224-224 c.

Thus, by this process, a user of a mobile device can quickly get a viewof an area, such as a shopping district that they are planning to visit,or a neighborhood of a friend where they expect to travel. They canobtain a more immersive experience of the location by holding theirmobile device in front of them and turning in a circle while the imageson the device pan to match their motion. As a result, the user canquickly see what an area will look like, and can decide whether to gothere or not, or can more readily recognize the area when they arrive atit.

In reference to FIG. 4D, the process starts at box 452 when the mobiledevice launches a maps search box. In general, search boxes are types ofinput controls that give a user of a process the ability to provide someinformation in the form of a query. For example, a search box may be aneditable text box or other user interface component.

In box 454, the mobile device receives an address input from the searchbox. In some implementations, a user may input an address into thesearch box (e.g., “HHH Metrodome” or “123 Main Street, Anytown,Calif.”). In other implementations, an automated process mayautomatically provide the address. For example, the map application maybe configured with certain predefined addresses (e.g., the user's work,the user's home, or other addresses) which the map application canautomatically provide to the mobile device upon request. As anotherexample, a GPS module may determine the address of the mobile deviceaccording to a GPS calculation.

In box 456, the mobile device submits a formatted maps query. Ingeneral, the maps query can be formatted for any number of applicationprogram interfaces (API). Example formatting includes, but is notlimited to, any number of database query formats, common gatewayinterface (CGI) request formats, hypertext markup language (HTML)formats, or any other conventional formats for submitting queries.

In box 458, the maps server receives the query and generates one or moreresults. For example, in some situations, the address may not be able tobe resolved. That is, there may be more than one location with anaddress substantially similar to the one received from the mobiledevice. As such, in some implementations, the maps server may generatemultiple results, one for each result, and may provide feedback to themobile device (and the user) to help disambiguate the result(s). Inother implementations, the maps server may first disambiguate theaddress before generating a result.

Once the maps server has determined a particular result, in box 460, themaps server transmits the relevant map tiles and other data to themobile device. For example, the maps server may transmit map tiles anddata associated with the HHH Metrodome (e.g., images, advertisements, orother data).

In box 462, the mobile device displays the map around the submittedaddress. For example, the mobile device can display buildings, streets,parks, or other aspects of the geography around the HHH Metrodome.

Once the map is displayed, in box 464, the mobile device may receiveuser input of a StreetView location and transmit location data. Forexample, the user can select a particular street displayed on the mobiledevice as the StreetView location. As another example, a GPS module mayautomatically provide the mobile device's current street as theStreetView location. The location data can be transmitted as a query.For example, the mobile device can format a query for one or more imagesassociated with the StreetView location.

In box 466, the StreetView server receives the query and generates theresults. In general, the StreetView server can access one or more imagerepositories and generate data that includes one or more imagesassociated with the received query.

In box 468, the StreetView server transmits relevant real word cameraimages (perhaps with annotations). For example, in reference to FIG. 2B,the StreetView server transmits real world camera images of the HHHMetrodome with annotations for the particular street (e.g., “KirbyPuckett PI”) and the direction the street runs (e.g., represented by the“NE” and “SW” arrows). In some implementations, the image is comprisedof multiple joined image files.

In box 470, the mobile device senses motion and updates the display toreflect that motion. For example, in response to a user shaking of themobile device, the mobile device can move forward in the image spaceaccording to the amount of shaking detecting. As another example, inaccordance with compass readings sensed by the mobile device, the imagecan be panned laterally around the geographic location. Other updatesaccording to the reflected motion are also possible, some of which havebeen described above. In some implementations, the mobile device mayrequest additional images if, for example, the mobile device does notcontain any images that correspond to the sensed motion. For example, ifthe mobile device is panned laterally beyond a certain point, the mobiledevice may need to communicate with the StreetView server to receiveadditional images.

In box 472, the StreetView server generates and transmits additionalimage data as requested by the mobile device. In some implementations,the StreetView server may use previous queries to pre-fetch certainimages from the image repositories in anticipation of additional motionsensed by the mobile device. That is, the StreetView server maydetermine additional images that may be used by the mobile devicesometime in the future according to the current motion of the mobiledevice and transmit the additional image data with the current request.In general, boxes 470 and 472 and their respective communications mayoccur any number of times.

Referring now to FIG. 5, the exterior appearance of an exemplary device500 that implements the user interface features described here isillustrated. Briefly, and among other things, the device 500 includes aprocessor configured to display notifications regarding events on thedevice 500, and to permit a user to conveniently “pull down” detailabout the events relating to the notifications into an extended view ofthe events.

In more detail, the hardware environment of the device 500 includes adisplay 501 for displaying text, images, and video to a user; a keyboard502 for entering text data and user commands into the device 500; apointing device 504 for pointing, selecting, and adjusting objectsdisplayed on the display 501; an antenna 505; a network connection 506;a camera 507; a microphone 509; and a speaker 510. Although the device500 shows an external antenna 505, the device 500 can include aninternal antenna, which is not visible to the user.

The display 501 can display video, graphics, images, and text that makeup the user interface for the software applications used by the device500, and the operating system programs used to operate the device 500.Among the possible elements that may be displayed on the display 501 area new mail indicator 511 that alerts a user to the presence of a newmessage; an active call indicator 512 that indicates that a telephonecall is being received, placed, or is occurring; a data standardindicator 514 that indicates the data standard currently being used bythe device 500 to transmit and receive data; a signal strength indicator515 that indicates a measurement of the strength of a signal received byvia the antenna 505, such as by using signal strength bars; a batterylife indicator 516 that indicates a measurement of the remaining batterylife; or a clock 517 that outputs the current time.

The display 501 may also show application icons representing variousapplications available to the user, such as a web browser applicationicon 519, a phone application icon 520, a search application icon 521, acontacts application icon 522, a mapping application icon 524, an emailapplication icon 525, or other application icons. In one exampleimplementation, the display 501 is a quarter video graphics array (QVGA)thin film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD), capable of16-bit or better color.

A user uses the keyboard (or “keypad”) 502 to enter commands and data tooperate and control the operating system and applications that providefor responding to notification of alerts and responding to messages andthe like (and also to a touch screen). The keyboard 502 includesstandard keyboard buttons or keys associated with alphanumericcharacters, such as keys 526 and 527 that are associated with thealphanumeric characters “Q” and “W” when selected alone, or areassociated with the characters “*” and “1” when pressed in combinationwith key 529. A single key may also be associated with specialcharacters or functions, including unlabeled functions, based upon thestate of the operating system or applications invoked by the operatingsystem. For example, when an application calls for the input of anumeric character, a selection of the key 527 alone may cause a “1” tobe input.

In addition to keys traditionally associated with an alphanumerickeypad, the keyboard 502 also includes other special function keys, suchas an establish call key 530 that causes a received call to be answeredor a new call to be originated; a terminate call key 531 that causes thetermination of an active call; a drop down menu key 532 that causes amenu to appear within the display 501; a backward navigation key 534that causes a previously accessed network address to be accessed again;a favorites key 535 that causes an active web page to be placed in abookmarks folder of favorite sites, or causes a bookmarks folder toappear; a home page key 536 that causes an application invoked on thedevice 500 to navigate to a predetermined network address; or other keysthat provide for multiple-way navigation, application selection, andpower and volume control.

The user uses the pointing device 504 to select and adjust graphics andtext objects displayed on the display 501 as part of the interactionwith and control of the device 500 and the applications invoked on thedevice 500. The pointing device 504 is any appropriate type of pointingdevice, and may be a joystick, a trackball, a touch-pad, a camera, avoice input device, a touch screen device implemented in combinationwith the display 501, or any other input device.

The antenna 505, which can be an external antenna or an internalantenna, is a directional or omni-directional antenna used for thetransmission and reception of radiofrequency (RF) signals that implementpoint-to-point radio communication, wireless local area network (LAN)communication, or location determination. The antenna 505 may facilitatepoint-to-point radio communication using the Specialized Mobile Radio(SMR), cellular, or Personal Communication Service (PCS) frequencybands, and may implement the transmission of data using any number ordata standards. For example, the antenna 505 may allow data to betransmitted between the device 500 and a base station using technologiessuch as Wireless Broadband (WiBro), Worldwide Interoperability forMicrowave ACCess (WiMAX), 5GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE), Ultra MobileBroadband (UMB), High Performance Radio Metropolitan Network (HIPERMAN),iBurst or High Capacity Spatial Division Multiple Access (HC-SDMA), HighSpeed OFDM Packet Access (HSOPA), High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), HSPAEvolution, HSPA+, High Speed Upload Packet Access (HSUPA), High SpeedDownlink Packet Access (HSDPA), Generic Access Network (GAN), TimeDivision-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA),Evolution-Data Optimized (or Evolution-Data Only)(EVDO), TimeDivision-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), Freedom Of MobileMultimedia Access (FOMA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System(UMTS), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Enhanced Datarates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), Code DivisionMultiple Access-2000 (CDMA2000), Wideband Integrated Dispatch EnhancedNetwork (WiDEN), High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (HSCSD), GeneralPacket Radio Service (GPRS), Personal Handy-Phone System (PHS), CircuitSwitched Data (CSD), Personal Digital Cellular (PDC), CDMAone, DigitalAdvanced Mobile Phone System (D-AMPS), Integrated Digital EnhancedNetwork (IDEN), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), DataTAC,Mobitex, Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Hicap, Advanced MobilePhone System (AMPS), Nordic Mobile Phone (NMP), Autoradiopuhelin (ARP),Autotel or Public Automated Land Mobile (PALM), Mobiltelefonisystem D(MTD), Offentlig Landmobil Telefoni (OLT), Advanced Mobile TelephoneSystem (AMTS), Improved Mobile Telephone Service (IMTS), MobileTelephone System (MTS), Push-To-Talk (PTT), or other technologies.Communication via W-CDMA, HSUPA, GSM, GPRS, and EDGE networks may occur,for example, using a QUALCOMM MSM7200A chipset with an QUALCOMM RTR6285transceiver and PM7540power management circuit.

The wireless or wired computer network connection 506 may be a modemconnection, a local-area network (LAN) connection including theEthernet, or a broadband wide-area network (WAN) connection such as adigital subscriber line (DSL), cable high-speed internet connection,dial-up connection, T-1 line, T-3 line, fiber optic connection, orsatellite connection. The network connection 506 may connect to a LANnetwork, a corporate or government WAN network, the Internet, atelephone network, or other network. The network connection 506 uses awired or wireless connector. Example wireless connectors include, forexample, an INFRARED DATA ASSOCIATION (IrDA) wireless connector, a Wi-Fiwireless connector, an optical wireless connector, an INSTITUTE OFELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS (IEEE) Standard 802.11 wirelessconnector, a BLUETOOTH wireless connector (such as a BLUETOOTH version1.2 or 5.0 connector), a near field communications (NFC) connector, anorthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) ultra wide band (UWB)wireless connector, a time-modulated ultra wide band (TM-UWB) wirelessconnector, or other wireless connector. Example wired connectorsinclude, for example, a IEEE-1394 FIREWIRE connector, a Universal SerialBus (USB) connector (including a mini-B USB interface connector), aserial port connector, a parallel port connector, or other wiredconnector. In another implementation, the functions of the networkconnection 506 and the antenna 505 are integrated into a singlecomponent.

The camera 507 allows the device 500 to capture digital images, and maybe a scanner, a digital still camera, a digital video camera, otherdigital input device. In one example implementation, the camera 507 is a5 mega-pixel (MP) camera that utilizes a complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor (CMOS).

The microphone 509 allows the device 500 to capture sound, and may be anomni-directional microphone, a unidirectional microphone, abidirectional microphone, a shotgun microphone, or other type ofapparatus that converts sound to an electrical signal. The microphone509 may be used to capture sound generated by a user, for example whenthe user is speaking to another user during a telephone call via thedevice 500. Conversely, the speaker 510 allows the device to convert anelectrical signal into sound, such as a voice from another usergenerated by a telephone application program, or a ring tone generatedfrom a ring tone application program. Furthermore, although the device500 is illustrated in FIG. 5 as a handheld device, in furtherimplementations the device 500 may be a laptop, a workstation, amidrange computer, a mainframe, an embedded system, telephone, desktopPC, a tablet computer, a PDA, or other type of computing device.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an internal architecture 600 ofthe device 500. The architecture includes a central processing unit(CPU) 601 where the computer instructions that comprise an operatingsystem or an application are processed; a display interface 602 thatprovides a communication interface and processing functions forrendering video, graphics, images, and texts on the display 501,provides a set of built-in controls (such as buttons, text and lists),and supports diverse screen sizes; a keyboard interface 604 thatprovides a communication interface to the keyboard 502; a pointingdevice interface 605 that provides a communication interface to thepointing device 504; an antenna interface 606 that provides acommunication interface to the antenna 505; a network connectioninterface 607 that provides a communication interface to a network overthe computer network connection 506; a camera interface 608 thatprovides a communication interface and processing functions forcapturing digital images from the camera 507; a sound interface 609 thatprovides a communication interface for converting sound into electricalsignals using the microphone 509 and for converting electrical signalsinto sound using the speaker 510; a random access memory (RAM) 610 wherecomputer instructions and data are stored in a volatile memory devicefor processing by the CPU 601; a read-only memory (ROM) 611 whereinvariant low-level systems code or data for basic system functions suchas basic input and output (I/O), startup, or reception of keystrokesfrom the keyboard 502 are stored in a non-volatile memory device; astorage medium 612 or other suitable type of memory (e.g. such as RAM,ROM, programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-onlymemory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, floppy disks, harddisks, removable cartridges, flash drives), where the files thatcomprise an operating system 614, application programs 615 (including,for example, a web browser application, a widget or gadget engine, andor other applications, as necessary) and data files 616 are stored; anavigation module 617 that provides a real-world or relative position orgeographic location of the device 500; a power source 619 that providesan appropriate alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) to powercomponents; and a telephony subsystem 620 that allows the device 500 totransmit and receive sound over a telephone network. The constituentdevices and the CPU 601 communicate with each other over a bus 621.

The CPU 601 can be one of a number of computer processors. In onearrangement, the computer CPU 601 is more than one processing unit. TheRAM 610 interfaces with the computer bus 621 so as to provide quick RAMstorage to the CPU 601 during the execution of software programs such asthe operating system application programs, and device drivers. Morespecifically, the CPU 601 loads computer-executable process steps fromthe storage medium 612 or other media into a field of the RAM 610 inorder to execute software programs. Data is stored in the RAM 610, wherethe data is accessed by the computer CPU 601 during execution. In oneexample configuration, the device 500 includes at least 128 MB of RAM,and 256 MB of flash memory.

The storage medium 612 itself may include a numberof physical driveunits, such as a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), a floppydisk drive, a flash memory, a USB flash drive, an external hard diskdrive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, a High-Density DigitalVersatile Disc (HD-DVD) optical disc drive, an internal hard disk drive,a Blu-Ray optical disc drive, or a Holographic Digital Data Storage(HDDS) optical disc drive, an external mini-dual in-line memory module(DIMM) synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), or an externalmicro-DIMM SDRAM. Such computer readable storage media allow the device500 to access computer-executable process steps, application programsand the like, stored on removable and non-removable memory media, tooff-load data from the device 500, or to upload data onto the device500.

A computer program product is tangibly embodied in storage medium 612, amachine-readable storage medium. The computer program product includesinstructions that, when read by a machine, operate to cause a dataprocessing apparatus to store image data in the mobile device. In someembodiments, the computer program product includes instructions thatgenerate notifications about alerts such as newly arriving messages onthe device.

The operating system 614 may be a LINUX-based operating system such asthe GOOGLE mobile device platform; APPLE MAC OS X; MICROSOFT WINDOWSNT/WINDOWS 2000/WINDOWS XP/WINDOWS MOBILE; a variety of UNIX-flavoredoperating systems; or a proprietary operating system for computers orembedded systems. The application development platform or framework forthe operating system 614 may be: BINARY RUNTIME ENVIRONMENT FOR WIRELESS(BREW); JAVA Platform, Micro Edition (JAVA ME) or JAVA 2 Platform, MicroEdition (J2ME) using the SUN MICROSYSTEMS JAVASCRIPT programminglanguage; PYTHON FLASH LITE, or MICROSOFT.NET Compact, or anotherappropriate environment.

The device stores computer-executable code for the operating system 614,and the application programs 615 such as an email, instant messaging, avideo service application, a mapping application word processing,spreadsheet, presentation, gaming, mapping, web browsing, JAVASCRIPTengine, or other applications. For example, one implementation may allowa user to access the GOOGLE GMAIL email application, the GOOGLE TALKinstant messaging application, a YOUTUBE video service application, aGOOGLE MAPS or GOOGLE EARTH mapping application, or a GOOGLE PICASAimaging editing and presentation application. The application programs615 may also include a widget or gadget engine, such as a TAFRI widgetengine, a MICROSOFT gadget engine such as the WINDOWS SIDEBAR gadgetengine or the KAPSULES gadget engine, a YAHOO! widget engine such as theKONFABULTOR widget engine, the APPLE DASHBOARD widget engine, the GOOGLEgadget engine, the KLIPFOLIO widget engine, an OPERA widget engine, theWIDSETS widget engine, a proprietary widget or gadget engine, or otherwidget or gadget engine the provides host system software for aphysically-inspired applet on a desktop.

Although it is possible to provide for notifications and interactionswith messages and other events using the above-described implementation,it is also possible to implement the functions according to the presentdisclosure as a dynamic link library (DLL), or as a plug-in to otherapplication programs such as an Internet web-browser such as the FOXFIREweb browser, the APPLE SAFARI web browser or the MICROSOFT INTERNETEXPLORER web browser.

The navigation module 617 may determine an absolute or relative positionof the device, such as by using the Global Positioning System (GPS)signals, the GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS), the Galileopositioning system, the Beidou Satellite Navigation and PositioningSystem, an inertial navigation system, a dead reckoning system, or byaccessing address, internet protocol (IP) address, or locationinformation in a database. The navigation module 617 may also be used tomeasure angular displacement, orientation, or velocity of the device500, such as by using one or more accelerometers.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components of theoperating system 614 used by the device 500, in the case where theoperating system 614 is the GOOGLE mobile device platform. The operatingsystem 614 invokes multiple processes, while ensuring that theassociated phone application is responsive, and that waywardapplications do not cause a fault (or “crash”) of the operating system.Using task switching, the operating system 614 allows for the switchingof applications while on a telephone call, without losing the state ofeach associated application. The operating system 614 may use anapplication framework to encourage reuse of components, and provide ascalable user experience by combining pointing device and keyboardinputs and by allowing for pivoting. Thus, the operating system canprovide a rich graphics system and media experience, while using anadvanced, standards-based web browser.

The operating system 614 can generally be organized into six components:a kernel 700, libraries 701, an operating system runtime 702,application libraries 704, system services 705, and applications 706.The kernel 700 includes a display driver 707 that allows software suchas the operating system 614 and the application programs 715 to interactwith the display 501 via the display interface 602, a camera driver 709that allows the software to interact with the camera 507; a BLUETOOTHdriver 710; a M-Systems driver 711; a binder (IPC) driver 712, a USBdriver 714 a keypad driver 715 that allows the software to interact withthe keyboard 502 via the keyboard interface 604; a WiFi driver 716;audio drivers 717 that allow the software to interact with themicrophone 509 and the speaker 510 via the sound interface 609; and apower management component 719 that allows the software to interact withand manage the power source 719.

The BLUETOOTH driver, which in one implementation is based on the BlueZBLUETOOTH stack for LINUX-based operating systems, provides profilesupport for headsets and hands-free devices, dial-up networking,personal area networking (PAN), or audio streaming (such as by AdvanceAudio Distribution Profile (A2DP) or Audio/Video Remote Control Profile(AVRCP). The BLUETOOTH driver provides JAVA bindings for scanning,pairing and unpairing, and service queries.

The libraries 701 include a media framework 720 that supports standardvideo, audio and still-frame formats (such as Moving Picture ExpertsGroup (MPEG)-4, H.264, MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3 (MP3), Advanced Audio Coding(MC), Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR), Joint Photographic Experts Group(JPEG), and others) using an efficient JAVA Application ProgrammingInterface (API) layer; a surface manager 721; a simple graphics library(SGL) 722 for two-dimensional application drawing; an Open GraphicsLibrary for Embedded Systems (OpenGL ES) 724 for gaming and -dimensionalrendering; a C standard library (LIBC) 725; a LIBWEBCORE library 726; aFreeType library 727; an SSL 729; and an SQLite library 730.

The operating system runtime 702 includes core JAVA libraries 731, and aDalvik virtual machine 732. The Dalvik virtual machine 732 is a custom,virtual machine that runs a customized file format (.DEX).

The operating system 614 can also include Mobile Information DeviceProfile (MIDP) components such as the MIDP JAVA Specification Requests(JSRs) components, MIDP runtime, and MIDP applications as shown in FIG.7. The MIDP components can support MIDP applications running on thedevice 500.

With regard to graphics rendering, a system-wide composer managessurfaces and a frame buffer and handles window transitions, using theOpenGL ES 724 and two-dimensional hardware accelerators for itscompositions.

The Dalvik virtual machine 732 may be used with an embedded environment,since it uses runtime memory very efficiently, implements aCPU-optimized bytecode interpreter, and supports multiple virtualmachine processes per device. The custom file format (DEX) is designedfor runtime efficiency, using a shared constant pool to reduce memory,read-only structures to improve cross-process sharing, concise, andfixed-width instructions to reduce parse time, thereby allowinginstalled applications to be translated into the custom file formal atbuild-time. The associated bytecodes are designed for quickinterpretation, since register-based instead of stack-based instructionsreduce memory and dispatch overhead, since using fixed widthinstructions simplifies parsing, and since the 16-bit code unitsminimize reads.

The application libraries 704 include a view system 734, a resourcemanager 735, and content providers 737. The system services 705 includesa status bar 739; an application launcher 740; a package manager 741that maintains information for all installed applications; a telephonymanager 742 that provides an application level JAVA interface to thetelephony subsystem 620; a notification manager 744 that allows allapplications access to the status bar and on-screen notifications; awindow manager 745 that allows multiple applications with multiplewindows to share the display 501; and an activity manager 746 that runseach application in a separate process, manages an application lifecycle, and maintains a cross-application history.

The applications 706 include a home application 747, a dialerapplication 749, a contacts application 750, and a browser application751. Each of the applications may generate graphical elements thateither do or do not have long press interactions. As described above,those that do not have long press interactions may provide no immediatevisual feedback when they are first pressed, while those that do havesuch interactions may be highlighted between the time they are firstpressed and the expiration of the long press period. Also, thehighlighting may not occur exactly upon a press, so that mere tapping ofan item does not cause it to be highlighted; instead, the highlightingmay occur upon the expiration of a short press period that is slightlymore than the time period for a tap, but appreciably shorter than a longpress period.

The telephony manager 742 provides event notifications (such as phonestate, network state, Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) status, orvoicemail status), allows access to state information (such as networkinformation, SIM information, or voicemail presence), initiates calls,and queries and controls the call state. The browser application 751renders web pages in a full, desktop-like manager, including navigationfunctions. Furthermore, the browser application 751 allows singlecolumn, small screen rendering, and provides for the embedding of HTMLviews into other applications.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary processes implementedby the operating system kernel 800. Generally, applications and systemservices run in separate processes, where the activity manager 746 runseach application in a separate process and manages the application lifecycle. The applications run in their own processes, although manyactivities or services can also run in the same process. Processes arestarted and stopped as needed to run an application's components, andprocesses may be terminated to reclaim resources. Each application isassigned its own process, whose name is the application's package name,and individual parts of an application can be assigned another processname.

Some processes can be persistent. For example, processes associated withcore system components such as the surface manager 816, the windowmanager 814, or the activity manager 810 can be continuously executedwhile the device 500 is powered. Additionally, some application-specificprocess can also be persistent. For example, processes associated withthe dialer application 821, may also be persistent.

The processes implemented by the operating system kernel 800 maygenerally be categorized as system services processes 801, dialerprocesses 802, browser processes 804, and maps processes 805. The systemservices processes 801 include status bar processes 806 associated withthe status bar 739; application launcher processes 807 associated withthe application launcher 740; package manager processes 809 associatedwith the package manager 741; activity manager processes 810 associatedwith the activity manager 746; resource manager processes 811 associatedwith a resource manager 811 that provides access to graphics, localizedstrings, and XML layout descriptions; notification manger processes 812associated with the notification manager 744; window manager processes814 associated with the window manager 745; core JAVA librariesprocesses 815 associated with the core JAVA libraries 731; surfacemanager processes 816 associated with the surface manager 721; Dalvikvirtual machine processes 817 associated with the Dalvik virtual machine732, and LIBC processes 819 associated with the LIBC library 725.

The dialer processes 802 include dialer application processes 821associated with the dialer application 749; telephony manager processes822 associated with the telephony manager 742; core JAVA librariesprocesses 824 associated with the core JAVA libraries 731; Dalvikvirtual machine processes 825 associated with the Dalvik Virtual machine732; and LIBC processes 826 associated with the LIBC library 725. Thebrowser processes 804 include browser application processes 827associated with the browser application 751; core JAVA librariesprocesses 829 associated with the core JAVA libraries 731; Dalvikvirtual machine processes 830 associated with the Dalvik virtual machine732; LIBWEBCORE processes 831 associated with the LIBWEBCORE library726; and LIBC processes 832 associated with the LIBC library 725.

The maps processes 805 include maps application processes 834, core JAVAlibraries processes 835, Dalvik virtual machine processes 836, and LIBCprocesses 837. Notably, some processes, such as the Dalvik virtualmachine processes, may exist within one or more of the systems servicesprocesses 801, the dialer processes 802, the browser processes 804, andthe maps processes 805.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a generic computer device 900 and a genericmobile computer device 950, which may be used with the techniquesdescribed here. Computing device 900 is intended to represent variousforms of digital computers, such as laptops, desktops, workstations,personal digital assistants, servers, blade servers, mainframes, andother appropriate computers. Computing device 950 is intended torepresent various forms of mobile devices, such as personal digitalassistants, cellular telephones, smartphones, and other similarcomputing devices. The components shown here, their connections andrelationships, and their functions, are meant to be exemplary only, andare not meant to limit implementations of the inventions describedand/or claimed in this document.

Computing device 900 includes a processor 902, memory 904, a storagedevice 906, a high-speed interface 908 connecting to memory 904 andhigh-speed expansion ports 910, and a low speed interface 912 connectingto low speed bus 914 and storage device 906. Each of the components 902,904, 906, 908, 910, and 912, are interconnected using various busses,and may be mounted on a common motherboard or in other manners asappropriate. The processor 902 can process instructions for executionwithin the computing device 900, including instructions stored in thememory 904 or on the storage device 906 to display graphical informationfor a GUI on an external input/output device, such as display 916coupled to high speed interface 908. In other implementations, multipleprocessors and/or multiple buses may be used, as appropriate, along withmultiple memories and types of memory. Also, multiple computing devices900 may be connected, with each device providing portions of thenecessary operations (e.g., as a server bank, a group of blade servers,or a multi-processor system).

The memory 904 stores information within the computing device 900. Inone implementation, the memory 904 is a volatile memory unit or units.In another implementation, the memory 904 is a non-volatile memory unitor units. The memory 904 may also be another form of computer-readablemedium, such as a magnetic or optical disk.

The storage device 906 is capable of providing mass storage for thecomputing device 900. In one implementation, the storage device 906 maybe or contain a computer-readable medium, such as a floppy disk device,a hard disk device, an optical disk device, or a tape device, a flashmemory or other similar solid state memory device, or an array ofdevices, including devices in a storage area network or otherconfigurations. A computer program product can be tangibly embodied inan information carrier. The computer program product may also containinstructions that, when executed, perform one or more methods, such asthose described above. The information carrier is a computer- ormachine-readable medium, such as the memory 904, the storage device 906,memory on processor 902, or a propagated signal.

The high speed controller 908 manages bandwidth-intensive operations forthe computing device 900, while the low speed controller 912 manageslower bandwidth-intensive operations. Such allocation of functions isexemplary only. In one implementation, the high-speed controller 908 iscoupled to memory 904, display 916 (e.g., through a graphics processoror accelerator), and to high-speed expansion ports 910, which may acceptvarious expansion cards (not shown). In the implementation, low-speedcontroller 912 is coupled to storage device 906 and low-speed expansionport 914. The low-speed expansion port, which may include variouscommunication ports (e.g., USB, Bluetooth, Ethernet, wireless Ethernet)may be coupled to one or more input/output devices, such as a keyboard,a pointing device, a scanner, or a networking device such as a switch orrouter, e.g., through a network adapter.

The computing device 900 may be implemented in a number of differentforms, as shown in the figure. For example, it may be implemented as astandard server 920, or multiple times in a group of such servers. Itmay also be implemented as part of a rack server system 924. Inaddition, it may be implemented in a personal computer such as a laptopcomputer 922. Alternatively, components from computing device 900 may becombined with other components in a mobile device (not shown), such asdevice 950. Each of such devices may contain one or more of computingdevice 900, 950, and an entire system may be made up of multiplecomputing devices 900, 950 communicating with each other.

Computing device 950 includes a processor 952, memory 964, aninput/output device such as a display 954, a communication interface966, and a transceiver 968, among other components. The device 950 mayalso be provided with a storage device, such as a microdrive or otherdevice, to provide additional storage. Each of the components 950, 952,964, 954, 966, and 968, are interconnected using various buses, andseveral of the components may be mounted on a common motherboard or inother manners as appropriate.

The processor 952 can execute instructions within the computing device950, including instructions stored in the memory 964. The processor maybe implemented as a chipset of chips that include separate and multipleanalog and digital processors. The processor may provide, for example,for coordination of the other components of the device 950, such ascontrol of user interfaces, applications run by device 950, and wirelesscommunication by device 950.

Processor 952 may communicate with a user through control interface 958and display interface 956 coupled to a display 954. The display 954 maybe, for example, a TFT LCD (Thin-Film-Transistor Liquid Crystal Display)or an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display, or other appropriatedisplay technology. The display interface 956 may comprise appropriatecircuitry for driving the display 954 to present graphical and otherinformation to a user. The control interface 958 may receive commandsfrom a user and convert them for submission to the processor 952. Inaddition, an external interface 962 may be provide in communication withprocessor 952, so as to enable near area communication of device 950with other devices. External interface 962 may provide, for example, forwired communication in some implementations, or for wirelesscommunication in other implementations, and multiple interfaces may alsobe used.

The memory 964 stores information within the computing device 950. Thememory 964 can be implemented as one or more of a computer-readablemedium or media, a volatile memory unit or units, or a non-volatilememory unit or units. Expansion memory 974 may also be provided andconnected to device 950 through expansion interface 972, which mayinclude, for example, a SIMM (Single In Line Memory Module) cardinterface. Such expansion memory 974 may provide extra storage space fordevice 950, or may also store applications or other information fordevice 950. Specifically, expansion memory 974 may include instructionsto carry out or supplement the processes described above, and mayinclude secure information also. Thus, for example, expansion memory 974may be provide as a security module for device 950, and may beprogrammed with instructions that permit secure use of device 950. Inaddition, secure applications may be provided via the SIMM cards, alongwith additional information, such as placing identifying information onthe SIMM card in a non-hackable manner.

The memory may include, for example, flash memory and/or NVRAM memory,as discussed below. In one implementation, a computer program product istangibly embodied in an information carrier. The computer programproduct contains instructions that, when executed, perform one or moremethods, such as those described above. The information carrier is acomputer- or machine-readable medium, such as the memory 964, expansionmemory 974, memory on processor 952, or a propagated signal that may bereceived, for example, over transceiver 968 or external interface 962.

Device 950 may communicate wirelessly through communication interface966, which may include digital signal processing circuitry wherenecessary. Communication interface 966 may provide for communicationsunder various modes or protocols, such as GSM voice calls, SMS, EMS, orMMS messaging, CDMA, TDMA, PDC, WCDMA, CDMA2000, or GPRS, among others.Such communication may occur, for example, through radio-frequencytransceiver 968. In addition, short-range communication may occur, suchas using a Bluetooth, WiFi, or other such transceiver (not shown). Inaddition, GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver module 970 mayprovide additional navigation- and location-related wireless data todevice 950, which may be used as appropriate by applications running ondevice 950.

Device 950 may also communicate audibly using audio codec 960, which mayreceive spoken information from a user and convert it to usable digitalinformation. Audio codec 960 may likewise generate audible sound for auser, such as through a speaker, e.g., in a handset of device 950. Suchsound may include sound from voice telephone calls, may include recordedsound (e.g., voice messages, music files, etc.) and may also includesound generated by applications operating on device 950.

The computing device 950 may be implemented in a number of differentforms, as shown in the figure. For example, it may be implemented as acellular telephone 980. It may also be implemented as part of asmartphone 982, personal digital assistant, or other similar mobiledevice.

Device 950 may also include one or more different devices that arecapable of sensing motion. Examples include, but are not limited to,accelerometers and compasses. Accelerometers and compasses, or otherdevices that are capable of detecting motion or position are availablefrom any number of vendors and can sense motion in a variety of ways.For example, accelerometers can detect changes in acceleration whilecompasses can detect changes in orientation respective to the magneticNorth or South Pole. These changes in motion can be detected by thedevice 950 and used to update the display of the respective devices 950according to processes and techniques described herein.

Various implementations of the systems and techniques described here canbe realized in digital electronic circuitry, integrated circuitry,specially designed ASICs (application specific integrated circuits),computer hardware, firmware, software, and/or combinations thereof.These various implementations can include implementation in one or morecomputer programs that are executable and/or interpretable on aprogrammable system including at least one programmable processor, whichmay be special or general purpose, coupled to receive data andinstructions from, and to transmit data and instructions to, a storagesystem, at least one input device, and at least one output device.

These computer programs (also known as programs, software, softwareapplications or code) include machine instructions for a programmableprocessor, and can be implemented in a high-level procedural and/orobject-oriented programming language, and/or in assembly/machinelanguage. As used herein, the terms “machine-readable medium”“computer-readable medium” refers to any computer program product,apparatus and/or device (e.g., magnetic discs, optical disks, memory,Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs)) used to provide machine instructionsand/or data to a programmable processor, including a machine-readablemedium that receives machine instructions as a machine-readable signal.The term “machine-readable signal” refers to any signal used to providemachine instructions and/or data to a programmable processor.

To provide for interaction with a user, the systems and techniquesdescribed here can be implemented on a computer having a display device(e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor)for displaying information to the user and a keyboard and a pointingdevice (e.g., a mouse or a trackball) by which the user can provideinput to the computer. Other kinds of devices can be used to provide forinteraction with a user as well; for example, feedback provided to theuser can be any form of sensory feedback (e.g., visual feedback,auditory feedback, or tactile feedback); and input from the user can bereceived in any form, including acoustic, speech, or tactile input.

The systems and techniques described here can be implemented in acomputing system that includes a back end component (e.g., as a dataserver), or that includes a middleware component (e.g., an applicationserver), or that includes a front end component (e.g., a client computerhaving a graphical user interface or a Web browser through which a usercan interact with an implementation of the systems and techniquesdescribed here), or any combination of such back end, middleware, orfront end components. The components of the system can be interconnectedby any form or medium of digital data communication (e.g., acommunication network). Examples of communication networks include alocal area network (“LAN”), a wide area network (“WAN”), and theInternet.

The computing system can include clients and servers. A client andserver are generally remote from each other and typically interactthrough a communication network. The relationship of client and serverarises by virtue of computer programs running on the respectivecomputers and having a client-server relationship to each other.

A number of embodiments have been described. Nevertheless, it will beunderstood that various modifications may be made without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention. For example, much of thisdocument has been described with respect to messaging and mappingapplications, but other forms of graphical applications may also beaddressed, such as interactive program guides, web page navigation andzooming, and other such applications.

In addition, the logic flows depicted in the figures do not require theparticular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirableresults. In addition, other steps may be provided, or steps may beeliminated, from the described flows, and other components may be addedto, or removed from, the described systems. Accordingly, otherembodiments are within the scope of the following claims.

1. A computer-implemented user interface method, comprising: displayingon a touch screen a potion of a large scale graphical space that is atleast multiples larger than the device display; receiving from a user ofthe device an input to pan within the graphical space; automaticallygenerating a pop up graphical panning control in response to receivingthe user input; and receiving a user input to the panning control andproviding panning in the graphical space, wherein movement of thepanning control in a single selection is able to pan the display acrossa substantial portion of the large scale graphical space.
 2. The methodof claim 1, wherein the pop up control comprises a slider button locatedalong an edge of the touch screen.
 3. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising increasing the graphical panning control in size if the userprovides multiple panning inputs without selecting the control.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the graphical space comprises a list of itemsand the graphical panning control causes accelerated scrolling throughthe list.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical spacecomprises a map or image and the graphical panning control causesaccelerated panning across the map or image.
 6. The method of claim 1,further comprising automatically removing the graphical panning controla determined time after a user selects the graphical panning control. 7.The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying on the touchscreen, during user selection of the panning control, a miniaturerepresentation of the graphical space and an indicator of the user'scurrent location within the graphical space.
 8. The method of claim 1,further comprising displaying on the touch screen, during user selectionof the panning control, an indicator of a segment, from within a groupof discrete segments in the graphical space, that is currently beingdisplayed on the touch screen.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the popup graphical panning control is generated in response to a long press bythe user on the touch screen.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the popup graphical panning control is generated in response to a quick flickinput on the touch screen.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the pop upgraphical panning control is sized relatively proportionately to thesize of the touch screen in comparison to the size of the graphicalspace.
 12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a longpress input from the user on the touch screen and generating a zoomcontrol on the touch screen in response to the long press input.
 13. Anarticle comprising a computer-readable data storage medium storingprogram code operable to cause one or more machines to performoperations, the operations comprising: displaying on a touch screen apotion of a large scale graphical space that is at least severalmultiples larger than the device display; receiving from a user of thedevice an input to pan within the graphical space; automaticallygenerating a pop up graphical panning control in response to receivingthe user input; and receiving a user input to the panning control andproviding panning in the graphical space, wherein movement of thepanning control in a single selection is able to panning the displayacross a substantial portion of the large scale graphical space.
 14. Thearticle of claim 13, wherein the pop up control comprises a sliderbutton located along an edge of the touch screen.
 15. The article ofclaim 13, wherein the operations further comprise increasing thegraphical panning control in size if the user provides multiple panninginputs without selecting the control.
 16. The article of claim 13,wherein the graphical space comprises a list of items and the graphicalpanning control causes accelerated scrolling through the list.
 17. Thearticle of claim 13, wherein the graphical space comprises a map orimage and the graphical panning control causes accelerated panningacross the map or image.
 18. The article of claim 13, wherein theoperations further comprise automatically removing the graphical panningcontrol a determined time after a user selects the control.
 19. Thearticle of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise displayingon the touch screen, during user selection of the panning control, aminiature representation of the graphical space and an indicator of theuser's current location within the graphical space.
 20. The article ofclaim 13, wherein the operations further comprise displaying on thetouch screen, during user selection of the panning control, an indicatorof a segment, from within a group of discrete segments in the graphicalspace, that is currently being displayed on the touch screen.
 21. Thearticle of claim 13, wherein the pop up graphical panning control isgenerated in response to a long press by the user on the touch screen.22. The article of claim 13, wherein the pop up graphical panningcontrol is generated in response to a quick flick input on the touchscreen.
 23. The article of claim 13, wherein the pop up graphicalpanning control is sized relatively proportionately to the size of thetouch screen in comparison to the size of the graphical space.
 24. Thearticle of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise receiving along press input from the user on the touch screen and generating a zoomcontrol on the touch screen in response to the long press input.
 25. Acomputer-implemented user interface system, comprising: a graphicaldisplay to present portions of large scale graphical areas; a touchscreen user input mechanism to receive user selections in coordinationwith the display of the portions of the lathe scale graphical areas; andmeans for generating an accelerated panning control in response to auser panning selection on portions of the large scale graphical areas.26. The system of claim 25, further comprising a mapping application,and wherein the pop up control comprises a panning control forcontrolling the mapping application.